Poverty Knowledge in South Africa: A Social History of Human Science, 1855–2005 - Hardcover

Davie, Grace

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521198755 ISBN 13: 9780521198752

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Poverty is South Africa's greatest challenge. But what is "poverty"? And how can it be measured and addressed? In South Africa, human-science knowledge about the cost of living grew out of colonialism, industrialization, apartheid, and civil resistance campaigns, which makes this knowledge far from neutral or apolitical. South Africans have used the Poverty Datum Line (PDL), and other poverty indicators, to petition the state, to chip away at the pillars of white supremacy, and, more recently, to criticize the postapartheid government's failures to deliver on its promises. Rather than advocating one particular policy solution, this book argues that poverty knowledge - including knowledge of the tension between quantitative and qualitative observations - teaches us about the dynamics of historical change, the power of racial thinking in white settler societies, and the role of ordinary people in shaping state policy. Readers will gain new perspectives on today's debates about social welfare, redistribution, and human rights and will ultimately find reasons to rethink conventional approaches to advocacy.

About this title

Book Description:

Poverty is South Africa's greatest challenge. But what is "poverty"? And how can it be measured and addressed? This book argues that poverty knowledge teaches us about the dynamics of historical change, the power of racial thinking in white settler societies, and the role of ordinary people in shaping state policy.

About the Author:

Grace Davie is Associate Professor of History at Queens College, City University of New York. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Southern African Studies, Waging Nonviolence, YES! magazine, and OD Practitioner.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0521198755
• ISBN 13: 9780521198752
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 346